REDDING--On paper, it seemed like just another baseball victory for the 27-7 Feather River Golden Eagles, who are also 18-1 and in first place in the Golden Valley Conference.
Wednesday's 8-5 win over College of the Redwoods at Shasta College was FRC's fourth straight triumph and their 22nd in their last 24. But amidst all of those facts is a three-digit number that might be even more impressive.
800.
On a cool April day in northern California, Golden Eagle head coach Terry Baumgartner captured his 800th collegiate victory. His staff and players celebrated afterwards with a "FRC-Baumgartner-800" sign, showing respect for their leader who is in his 28th season as a college head coach.
"I have been very fortunate to have been surrounded by so many great players and assistant coaches through the years," Baumgartner said. "There isn't a coach anywhere who doesn't win games without both."
Baumgartner began his head coaching career at the age of 24 at Western Oregon University, his alma mater. In 13 seasons at the school he was 370-220. Now in his 15th season at Feather River, he is 430-160, giving him a career mark as a college coach of 800-380.
His 800th victory also gives his team a 2.5 game lead in the GVC over Butte College with six games left to play.
The Golden Eagles had to battle back from a 4-1 deficit before claiming today's contesrt. The Corsairs built a three-run lead through 1.5 innings, but FRC kept pecking away with a run in each of the first four innings.
Still trailing 5-4 in the top of the sixth, the visitors finally took the lead for good. Garret Damico led things off with a double and then moved to third on Cooper Kitrel's single. That brought up Jerry Thomas, who had homered back in the first inning. Thomas, who leads the GVC in home runs, launched his tenth of the year to bring home Damico and Kitrel to give his team a 7-5 lead.
The Golden Eagles would add another run in the top of the seventh, but COR made things very interesting in the bottom half of the inning. Redwoods loaded the bases with two outs, forcing FRC to turn to closer Jake Christianson a few innings early. The tall righthander promptly got the third out in the seventh and would go on to retire seven straight Corsair batters (including three by strikeout in the eighth inning) to gain the save. It was his sixth save of the season, which also leads the GVC.
Feather River will continue their three-game slate with the College of the Redwoods in a revised schedule that has the two squads playing on Monday at 4 pm and Tuesday at noon. Both single games are slated to be played in Quincy.
